The Dutch Student & Young Professional Housing Fund (DSYPH) has been participating in the ESG Benchmark GRESB, previously known as the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark, for six years in a row. His commitment to making the real estate sector more sustainable was emphasized in 2021 with an awarded score of 82/100. The fund's performance has also been recognized with a Green Star rating, meaning DSYPH has achieved over 50% across all areas. The target for 2022 is to improve this score.
Social involvement
Employees are an important link for success. Despite many Rockfield Real Estate employees having primarily worked from home throughout 2020, a wide variety of options have been offered for both professional and personal development. Compared to 2019, the number of training and courses attended has increased by 15 percentage points and the proportion of employees who have received specific ESG-related training has increased by 33 percentage points. In addition, 98% of the employees completed an internal survey to find out which improvements could be made. The results show that employees are (more than) satisfied with their place within the organization, taking useful feedback into account for further improvement.
The aim is also to realize a high-quality living environment for the tenants, including the concepts Stunest and The Cohesion. Community building is central to this.
In order to understand the wishes of the residents, a survey among tenants was conducted at the end of 2019 and action plans were developed for each location in 2020 based on the results. The survey showed that 90% of the more than 450 respondents are very enthusiastic about their stay. In the end, practically every respondent indicated that they would choose a Stunest or The Cohesion building again if they had to look for a place to live again.
It is also very much appreciated that the community managers are available 24/7 for the tenants for any tenant question. In addition to organizing various community events related to sports, food, and (mental) health, the community managers made an extra effort in 2020 to realize a safe living environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. These events are not limited to just the residents of our buildings; the surrounding neighborhoods are also involved. For example, DSYPH participated in the Zeeburgertuin initiative in which they started working on a large neighborhood vegetable garden.
Finally, a start was made in 2020 and further research will be conducted in 2021 into the impact on the surrounding neighbourhoods. This is done on the basis of the 'Living Barometer', which looks at the indicators housing, inhabitants, safety, facilities and physical environment.
Environmental management
All buildings within DSYPH have an energy label A. This means that they meet the highest energy efficiency requirements. In addition, all buildings have a GPR sustainability certificate, with an average score of 7.
Also, by collaborating with our tenants, utility companies and service providers, extra efforts were made during 2020 to obtain an even more complete picture of the actual energy and water consumption. Compared to previous years, the coverage ratio for the buildings has increased considerably.
In addition to supplying electricity, district heating provides heat to some of the buildings. Compared to 2019, both electricity consumption and energy supplied by district heating have been reduced, by 19% and 15% respectively. In addition, since 2020 only green electricity has been purchased. As a result, emissions of 0 kg/CO2e/m2 have been achieved for 2020, while in 2019 this was still 0.02 kgCO2e/m2. Finally, the amount of energy generated by PV panels on the buildings has more than doubled; from 134 MWh in 2019 to 312 MWh in 2020.
Corporate governance
Within Rockfield Real Estate, the ESG Taskforce is at the helm of achieving our ambitions. In 2020, two new talents were added to the team. In addition, we have further expanded our collaboration with two external energy and ESG advisers. Collectively, the team is responsible for developing and rolling out improvements, ensuring sustainability objectives, and communicating with internal and external stakeholders.
In order to better understand which ESG components are relevant to us, we are currently conducting a Materiality Review, in order to subsequently adjust our policy accordingly.